My final farm :(

I arrived at Il Cavicchio last week and am thrilled with my final pick for WWOOF’ing in Italy. It’s a small agriturismo, run by Federico by himself – a daunting task as there is much to do. He has 5 beautiful rooms, each with a private bath – serving breakfast for all his guests and dinner many nights per week. He is often full and does an amazing job keeping the property beautiful and well maintained. He has ample land filled with vegetables, herbs and fruit trees – making a large amount of the food served here from the land. The land must be mowed, weeded, planted, harvested and then of course, the food must be processed as it gets ripe and ready.

On the night that I arrived, Federico was fast at work producing jams that will be served for breakfast through the coming year – we worked on a fig jam and he showed me the apple, watermelon and lemon jam he had completed just before my arrival. The following morning, we started bright and early at 6:30am – it was a day to make pomodoro salsa – a thick tomato sauce made just with tomato pulp and a bit of salt. He said that we would be assisted by an 85 year old friend – in fact, the former owner of the farm - Tacchini. Federico started the process of buying the property 8 years ago, he explained that you must first develop the land and enter a contract before completing the sale – something that happened 3 years later.

The land had formerly been just farm land –used mostly for cattle, with vegetables, grapes for wine and fruit trees; where the house now stands was stables and a barn. The property has now been developed with a beautiful house; the agriturismo with the 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a large dining room for guests, an office and a commercial kitchen – mostly used for processing of fruits and vegetables from the farm. The adjoining house lives atop the agriturismo, with a beautiful grand room that overlooks the field – used for cooking, eating and relaxing and of course a bathroom. The top floor has another 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. In the basement are multiple rooms for storage and a rec room for Federico’s 4 kids - ranging from 12-30 years and 2 grandkids.  This area was greatly ravaged during World War II – 90% of the structures destroyed in skirmishes. A small portion of a wall remains on Federico’s property from some structure from that era. In the hills above the house, we spotted a large hole in the ground where a US bomb had landed - the property stands at a division where US soldiers fought the Germans for six months during the war. The former owner purchased the land with a group of friends hoping to develop and build there homes on it; but instead farmed the land for many years with grapes and cattle and as each friend passed on, he was the sole owner when his children convinced him to sell it as he was getting on in years.

When Federico started working the land, the former owner was only too happy to help – he is now a regular part of the landscape here. One morning, I noticed him out picking tomatoes on his own; getting things ready for our next sauce making exercise. He is a fascinating old man – taking me gently by the arm and showing me his secrets of sauce making and picking vegetables. He explained his theory that you should never plant cucumbers near the melons as the cukes will lack flavor.  On the day we made sauce, he showed me how to mix the tomatoes and how to work the machine that we used to separate the pulp from the seeds and skin – making a crude joke (in Italian of course) that somehow referred to the art being in getting it in the hole. When Federico explained, we all laughed as I called him a dirty old man. Making the sauce involved cooking the whole tomatoes (about 200 pounds worth) in water in  gigantic copper pot until they were softened and the skin had begun to fall off (about 2 hours). From there, we drained all of the water off and placed the pulp into a machine that resembles a sausage grinder – pushing the tomato pulp into the hole as the pulp fell to one area and the seeds and skin filtered off to another. When Tacchini was a child, they had one machine for this process and it was operated by hand – it was shared by the whole village. Today, Federico has his own electric version, only lending it to Tacchini for his production. It is amazing how the world has changed. As a young man, Tacchini was captured by the Germans during the war and held in an internment camp for 1 ½ years. He complains to Federico when he allows a crop to get overripe on the vine or fruit to fall to ground – in his day, food was a struggle and they used everything regardless of their preferences. Today, Federico has more fruit than he knows what to do with and sometimes just does not have the time or the need to harvest everything.

The food of Ca' Penelope

Outdoor Dining - Ca' Penelope

Last week, the chef of Ca' Penelope returned from traveling. I had heard stories of the chef who only liked to cook meat and was concerned as their seemed to be some rumblings that she was none too pleased to have another chef in the house. She was described as a casalingua - the queen of the kitchen and very strict about the way things were to be done in her kitchen. She learned to cook in her grandmother’s kitchen and had been the head chef in small restaurant for 4 years prior to coming to Ca Panelope. On her first day of arrival, a fight ensued in Italian – I caught only that she did not want another chef in the kitchen. I steered clear that day, only too happy to be grilling our harvest of eggplant and zucchini in preparation for preserving them in oil. I made a simple grilled panzanella (bread and tomato salad) for lunch and even ensured that I made it exclusively outside the kitchen. As we sat down to lunch, she joined us at the table and began to ask questions – she tried the salad and gave me compliments. Soon, there was laughter and talking and she seemed to be open to having my help – I was eager to work with a true chef in Italy as until now, my experience has been primarily solo or with foreigners or less experienced cooks than myself. I had picked up a few things along the way, but not the traditions that I had come to learn.

Indoor dining - Ca' Penelope

That night I showed up unsure as to what to expect. I offered to do some prep work and began doing simple tasks such as cutting onions, tomatoes and rosemary. Before long, we were fast friends – telling stories and discussing our respective histories. She began working on gnocchetti (small gnocchi) and I simply helped in transferring finished pasta onto the boards. After a bit, I asked if I could roll and cut some of the pasta and she passed the baton – after 15 minutes of so, I was comfortably producing alongside her and felt very natural. The following day, she asked if I wanted to help make tiramisu and allowed me write her recipe with a promise to not share it – only allowing me to make for others outside of Italy. This was a huge amount of trust – she has never given her recipes to anyone.

Gnocchetti

The next day she arrived and began prepping for the day – we had 15 people coming for dinner and 30 the next day. We had much gnocchetti to make – she asked me to prepare the dough while she worked on another dish. Soon we stood side by side, preparing the several thousand of gnocchetti that would get us through the weekend. Lorna also prepared tigelle – a typical dish of Modena. They remind me of a thin English muffin and are filled with meats, cheeses and a spread made of lardo, rosemary and garlic; I called these Panini and was quickly corrected that they are nothing like a Panini. To my simple American mind, I could not see the difference. But Italian traditions about food run deep – not that long ago, Italy was not unified and each region had its own unique dialect and food. It is only in recent history that they have come together to form a nation – regional pride is strong and each region possesses a uniqueness of tradition and culture. Meats had to be sliced, cheese cut, bruschetta made and sauce warmed. Lorna also prepared chicken cacciatore – literally hunters chicken; a dish of chicken braised with peppers, tomatoes, onions and wine (in this case, lambrusco, the typical wine of the region) and seasoned with garlic, rosemary and bay leaves. It was beautiful to see the amount of tradition and history in each dish and to see each dish lovingingly prepared by hand. This week, we prepared tortelloni (in my eyes they looked to be ravioli), filled with spinach, ricotta and Parmesan. It was great to gain more comfort working with pasta – Lorna is a very skilled pasta maker and has been making it for over 30 years.

In my time there, we also made many sauces - Salsa de Modena, a sweet and sour sauce made of carrots, onions and vinegar; sun dried tomato pesto, tomato sauce for pasta and a spicy pepperoncini sauce . We made many different jams – black fig, green fig, green tomato – using some for breakfast and some in tarts to be served with coffee or as a dessert. We made frittatas for lunch and dinners – using the plentiful eggs from the ducks and chickens of the farm. And we made countless pots of zucchini soup – putting it in the freezer for the winter months when vegetables are harder to come by.

This is the life of the farm – plentiful harvests with hard, long days and food put away to carry you through the long winter months. Preserving and living off the land are rare things in the US; I am so thankful to be given this chance to learn what is most certainly being forgotten and lost and while it is more common in Italy, they are too losing touch with the land. It is these traditions that need to be valued, cherished and passed along to any and all that will listen.

Something to learn – the value of sleep

Seems strange that I would need to go to Italy to learn it, but one of my most important lesions has been the value of sleep. Not necessarily just at night, but simply the act of relaxing mid-day and then enjoying a well deserved good sleep at night. For those that have known me for long, they know me as an insomniac – never enough hours in the day to get everything done; to see everything; to still my ready churning mind filled with must-do’s and to-do lists. As a kid, I was the last one to sleep at the slumber party – never wanting to miss out on anything I was sure to come. In more recent year, this has manifested itself as hours spent tossing and turning; staring at the clock; counting the diminishing hours before the alarm rings and the day begins again. This has been a struggle of mine for as long as I recall; leaving sleep behind to the days of my youth. I have tried all the advice – turning the computer and TV hours before I plan to sleep, ready with a low-output night light, meditation, yoga and at times knocking back a Tylenol PM or a glass of wine. A not to be named friend of mine (she’ll know who she is), used to joke that she looked forward to being sick in order to take TheraFlu – I think she likes the taste. I loved it because I would finally have a good night of sleep. At times, my relaxation methods worked and I got a good night sleep, but then I would fall back into my same old pattern of fitful bursts of sleep.

Now that I have settled into Italian life, it is no longer an issue. What is not done today, can most certainly wait for tomorrow. Meals are lengthy, with time for relaxation, wine and good conversations – starting the digestive process long before rising from the table. Work is at a relaxed pace with a liassez faire attitude – what will be will be. At home, I would have avoided a mid-days nap, even when I was exhausted as I knew that sleep might evade me at night. Here, I greedily climb into bed for an hour or two after lunch – sometimes to read, but more often to close my eyes and slumber away. At night, it’s no different – sleep is welcomed – not because I am exhausted, but because I am relaxed and my body is looking to make up for lost time – regenerative and refreshing – healing the mind, body & soul. Were I to return home with only one lesson – my hope is that this is it. If I am granted some extra ones for good behavior, I am sure that I can find a few more things to keep the Genie busy for quite a while.

Wanderings

A day off last week led me to explore Modena and Parma. I am staying in Maranello, a 30 minute bus ride from Modena and another 40 minutes by train to Parma. In Modena, I visited a beautiful indoor market - full of the typical vegetable and fruits, and also small bakeries, meat shops with both butchered meats and ready prepared items like stuffed flank steak ready for the grill or oven. The fish markets had a beautiful array of fish and seafood - a nice surprise as the region is dominated by meat consumption - in particular pork (it is said to be 2 pigs for every person in the Modena region). There were cheese shops and spice/dry good merchants and then my favorite - the prepared foods: beautiful pastas, salads, cured vegetables and fish, rice salads, stuffed zucchini, grilled meats - everything prepared and ready to eat or take home for a nice meal. I also visited the duomo - a beautiful church, ornate and grand.

After a bit of wandering the streets, I felt the pull to Parma and wandered off in search of the train station. A quick relaxing ride landed me in the center of town. Parma is an homage to foods of the region - beautiful proscuitto, of course Parmigiano Reggiano.You can also find Mortadella, salame, capocollo and pancetta. A couple of visits to meat shops proved to be almost overwhelming with massive legs of curing meats lining the shelves and hanging from the ceiling - some aged 5-6 years. Lambrusco wine dominates in the region and was surprisingly nice - the light acidity and sweetness was a great compliment to the richness of many of the meals. In Parma, I enjoyed a beautiful lunch on lasagne bolognese - a surprising delicate dish with fresh spinach noodles, bechamel and the ever present ragu (Bolognese to the rest of us) and of course finished with Parmesan.

This week, I had a chance to visit the Museo del Balsamico Tradizionale in Spilamberto - about 20 minutes from where I am staying. The history of balsamic vinegar is rich with tradition and family history. A true, top form balsamico takes a minimum of 25 years to produce and 100 kilos of grapes produce a scant 2 liters of end product. It is a highly labor intensive process, with a 10% of the liquid in each barrel moved to another barrel each year to develop the sugars and the flavors and finally for aging. Different types of woods are used at different stages of production, each imparting their own unique flavor and color to the final experience. The process comes from a highly home grown tradition, and typically aging rooms are found in attics - where they stay cool in the winter and obtain high temperatures in e summer.Vinegars given the Tradizionale certification are made only from grapes, harvested in the September and October months - no sugar or colorings are added and to be labeled as an official Balsamico Tradizionale, they must be tasted and reviewed by a board and aged a minimum of 12 years - you will find them aged for 12 years and 25 years. You will find younger balsamicos made in the traditional ways, but they will be labeled as condimento and not as Tradizionale. These younger vinegars are intended for cooking or on salads. The older ones reserved for being served atop cheeses, strawberries, steaks and the like - a few drops enhancing the flavor of the dish. A 12 year old 100 ML bottle (about 3 oz) costing $40-60 and a 25 year costing $100 plus.

In the afternoon, I visited a home/business where they have produced balsamico in the traditional ways for at least 5 generations - having lost track of their history going back further.I had a personal tour of the aging room where they produce 30-40 liters of balsamico per year - hardly enough to support a family. The barrels used in aging will last for 100-150 years, but a new family of barrels costs 1000's of dollars and takes 18+ months to arrive. The family also operates a traditional 60 seat restaurant where dinner runs $100+/person. They have a small B&B and have 4 generations of family members working and living at the property. My tour was done by Davide - the son of the current owner. He explained that as each child is born, they will start a new family of barrels for that child - each one able to select how sweet or acidic they would like the final product. Davide explained that his is more acidic, as he wants to have his vinegar for generations - hoping to age it 200-300 years. His sister's is more sweet and will not be consumable past a few generations - too sweet and too thick. They also house some private collections for wealthy families from America, South Africa and the Middle East - each getting their allotment of 1-2 liters of finished product per year.I smelled finished products that were 78 years old and tasted ones that were 30 years.

Life on the farm

Fabrizia - boundless energy

Mila - hard at work

Onion Braids

A few of the tomatoes from our harvest

Finished fig jam - green and black

Life at Ca Penelope is very simple. The farm is small and manageable – two donkeys, one cow, 9 ducks, 20 or so chickens, 6 cats and 1 to 3 dogs – depending on who is there that day. There is a large ornamental rose garden, a large vegetable garden – planted with tomatoes, onions, chard, garlic, eggplants and peppers. There is a small planting of grapes for wine – put in just two years ago and a long ways off from being harvested. There are fruit trees – plums, cherries, figs, apricots and peaches; and nut trees – hazelnuts, walnuts and chestnuts. The farm was designed as an educational farm – during the school year there are frequent visits from local school children to learn the ways of the farm. Now it is harvest and there is much to do, preserving the bounties of the growing season. There is a also a small restaurant – serving both the guests of the house (5 rooms – some with small kitchens) and people from the outside – typically the visitors come from within Italy. The restaurant is open every morning for breakfast when there are guests to be served and 4 nights per week for a small, full-service typical Italian meal.

Making a frittata- found a double yolk; 

my lucky day

Chicken laying next to the grill - the hunt is on for eggs

Every day, we begin about 8am – feeding the ducks and letting them from their holding pen, changing their water and filling their pond; of course taking time to look for eggs. Then it is off to feed chickens, top off their water and look to see what eggs may have appeared overnight, letting them roam off into the cow/donkey field and beyond to scavenge on bugs. Next we must make sure that the donkeys and cow have hay and water. The cow/donkeys are put out to pasture during the day – moved around the property to feed on fresh land. The animals happily share the land – freely wandering about the property – making sure to linger closely when we enjoy lunch outside. There is always extra pasta and bread to spare to keep them happy. The chickens can be quite predatory and care must be taken to ensure that they do not eat all of the food of the ducks and the cats – it’s a frequent struggle chasing them off as they steal and torment the other animals. On occasion there are battles – a duck and chicken pecking at each other; cats chasing cats or competing for a meal, dogs chasing cats, chickens, ducks – whatever, but for the most part – life is very amicable. In the evening, we return the animals to their respective homes – looking for eggs, topping off water and giving them their final meal for the night.

Throughout the day, the projects will vary. On nights when the restaurant is open, there is much work to be done in the kitchen; on other days, we work on the land or preserving its many gifts. Since my arrival we have: harvested rose hips to be later used in the making of rose jelly; harvested 3 gig trees and making preserves from their fruit, harvested tomatoes – drying some in the sun, making sun dried tomato pesto and sun dried tomatoes in oil, making sauce for use in later days and of course using them in cooking for ourselves and guests; we have picked chard – the leaves will be used later in the week for filling tortelloni (a larger version of tortellini that is used with sauce, versus the smaller version which is typically served in broth), the stems are cooked up in frittatas and as a vegetable side dish with pepperocini , garlic and olive oil; we have removed the flowers from countless lavenders stalks – these will be later stuffed into small pillows to decorate the rooms and be given as gifts; we have harvested eggplants and zucchini – spending hours processing the older zucchini into 5 huge pots of soup, the younger ones grilled alongside the eggplant and then preserved in olive oil scented with lemon juice and garlic for use in the weeks to come. We have harvested onions - red & white, braiding the stems into beautiful and functional decorations. We have weeded the fields, mowed the grass, cleaned the duck pond and worked as a collective team to keep the farm running smoothly.

SeaFood

The next day was yet another good adventure. My unplanned hike had lead to very tight calves and the thought of hiking held little appeal; I decided instead that this was to be a slow day; a day of leisure. Following my breakfast with the flowery cappuccino, I wandered into town to explore some of the shops I had missed on my first day – I had been on the lookout for a special memento to take with my from my time in the Cinque Terre and recalled having seen a beautiful gallery from my first night. A quick viewing told me that I was in the right spot; gorgeous hand painted reproduction prints of each of the villages. I checked the hours and wandered off to explore the final village to ensure that I might not find something I liked better. A quick train to Monterosso landed me in the Northern most town and the most touristy of them all – exiting the train station, the long stretch of beach is full of umbrellas and lounge chairs – all lined up perfectly and in uniform colors as these are private beaches with an entry fee and chairs to rent. I walked into to the town, excited as I had read about a anchovy processing facility available for tour – much to my dismayal, I learned that it was in fact just a small shop and showroom and no processing to be seen. I ventured on and found a public beach and stretched out to enjoy some sun. Before long, hunger had arrived and the sun was fading my energy – I decided it was time to explore some seafood. I had scoped many of the restaurants while wandering the town and was soon at a beachside spot – that seemed to have a beautiful selection at a nice price. I ordered marinated anchovies and the deep fried mixed seafood platter. The anchovies were fresh and marinated with lemon juice and olive oil – served alongside crusty bread. The fried seafood was a beautiful selection of lightly breaded octopus and prawns with fresh lemon for squeezing – absolutely fantastic. This is a region that does there anchovies and octopus well. It left me satisfied, inspired and ready for more exploration. I recalled having seen a ferry on my way into town and thought this would be an excellent way to travel back to Vernazza – a quick 20 minute ride with feel of sea spray and sun topped off the afternoon perfectly. Back in Vernazza – I enjoyed some time finishing my book and then it was off to find some gelato. I went and picked up my artwork and decided a nap was in order. Dinner was a quick pizza with anchovies of course.

In the morning I packed up for my venture off to my new farm – grabbing some deep fried anchovies to take on the road with me. The trip was a 4 train, 2 bus adventure of less than 150 miles – about 6 hours of travel time. By evening, I had landed at my new home for two weeks – Ca Penelope. This farm is just outside of Modena in a town called Maranella – the home of Ferrari. While awaiting for my ride to pick me up at the bus station (about 20 minutes), I saw 20 Ferrari’s pass by – we are definitely at the home of the Ferrari. The next adventure begins . . . .